Teens call for veto

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society provides comprehensive sex education for youth. We, the high schoolers of SVUUS, have followed the debate over HB363, which restricts public school sex-ed classes. Teens need sex education to make informed decisions about our bodies.

There should be a separation of church and state. Schools are for giving us education; parents and church are for giving us morals. Thus, schools should provide sex education, including safer sex practices and contraception choices.

Without accurate information, we might learn it from friends, rumors, TV, social media or the hard way. Among American teens aged 18-19, 41 percent say they know little or nothing about condoms, and 75 percent say they know little or nothing about the contraceptive pill. Clearly, we teens should be given more education rather than less.

In "Your ignorance is the Legislature's bliss" (Opinion, March 11), The Tribune's George Pyle stated that "those most directly affected  Utah's teenagers  have no voice." We have been taught in church that we totally have a voice, and we can advocate for things we believe in.

Therefore, it is our responsibility to call on the governor to veto HB0363.